The Kaiparowits Formation dates to the late Campanian age and was deposited on Laramidia, an island continent, when North America was divided at the center by the Western Interior Seaway.

Based in part on the relationship between Nasutoceratops and other centrosaurines from around the same time, it has been proposed that Laramidia was divided into dinosaur "provinces" with separate endemic species, but this has been contested.

[1][2] Among the discoveries that have been made are three new ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) taxa, one of which was identified from UMNH Locality VP 940 discovered by the then graduate student and technician Eric K. Lund during the 2006 field season.

[2][3] Prior to this project, the only ceratopsian remains found in the formation were uninformative, isolated teeth, and centrosaurines were known almost exclusively from the northern part of western North America.

[4][5] Excavated fossils of the new ceratopsian were transported to the UMNH, where the blocks were prepared by volunteers with pneumatic air scribes and needles and subsequently reassembled; it took a few years for the team to assemble the skull of this dinosaur.

The deep, thin, and rounded septum at the front of the premaxilla appears to be more extensive than in any other ceratopsid, and extends hindwards to underlie the horn core of the nasal.

Nasutoceratops differs from other ceratopsids in that the dorsal ascending ramus (upwards directed portion of bone) of the maxilla has a thin-walled contact surface for the hindwards projecting process of the premaxilla.

The tooth row is displaced downward in relation to the front part of the maxilla where it contacts the premaxilla, unlike in most ceratopsids, but similar to Diabloceratops, Avaceratops, and more basal neoceratopsians.

[4] The fused nasal bones of Nasutoceratops (which form the upper hind part of the snout) are relatively short from front to back compared to more derived centrosaurines.

The skull roof is very vaulted around the eye region, which gives the impression that Nasutoceratops had a forward facing "forehead" across its width, similar to Diabloceratops and Albertaceratops, as well as many chasmosaurines.

The presence of four or five undulations on the margin of the squamosal suggests that episquamosals were attached to these, and their shape was probably similar to the epiparietals on the rest of the frill, which are relatively uniform.

[4] The three patches with skin impressions that are associated with the scapula and humerus of the left forelimb of the holotype are preserved both as casts and molds, and show three kinds of patterns formed by tubercle (round nodule) shaped scales.

[4][19] Patches A and B have variably sized scales that are round to elliptical and are arranged in irregular rows, similar to what is known from other ceratopsians (including Psittacosaurus, Chasmosaurus, and Centrosaurus).

The phylogenetic analysis of the study found Nasutoceratops to be the sister taxon of Avaceratops from the Judith River Formation of Montana, the two forming a previously unknown clade near the base of Centrosaurinae.

[5] Sampson and colleagues stated that the current knowledge indicated that centrosaurines originated on Laramidia (an island continent consisting of what is now western North America) 90–80 million years ago, and that this group split near the base, with most known centrosaurines in one clade from north Laramidia that evolved towards having abbreviated or absent brow horns and more elaborate frills, and Nasutoceratops and Avaceratops in the other, which de-emphasized their frill ornamentation in favor of enlarged brow horns.

[4] In 2016, the paleontologist Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva and colleagues reported a partial centrosaurine skeleton (specimen CPC 274) from the Aguja Formation of Coahuila, Mexico, which grouped with Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops in their phylogenetic analysis.

[20] The following year, the paleontologist Michael J. Ryan and colleagues reported a centrosaurine skull (specimen CMN 8804) from the Oldman Formation of Alberta, Canada, which they also found to group with Nasutoceratops and Avaceratops.

[22] The paleontologist Sebastian G. Dalman and colleagues named Crittendenceratops in 2018 based on two partial specimens from the Fort Crittenden Formation of Arizona, and assigned the genus to Nasutoceratopsini.

[24] The paleontologist Hiroki Ishikawa and colleagues did recover Nasutoceratopsini as a natural, basal group in their 2023 analysis, and found the new genus Furcatoceratops from the Judith River Formation to be close to Nasutoceratops.

They did not include Yehuecauhceratops, Crittendenceratops, and Menefeeceratops in their analysis due to their fragmentary nature, and considered the presence of a well-developed squamosal ridge a synapomorphy (shared derived feature) of Nasutoceratopsini.

[25] The cladogram below follows the 2023 phylogenetic analysis by Ishikawa and colleagues, and shows the position of Nasutoceratops within Ceratopsidae:[25] Chasmosaurus belli Pentaceratops sternbergii Diabloceratops eatoni Machairoceratops cronusi Avaceratops lammersi

Avaceratops) Nasutoceratops titusi Furcatoceratops elucidans Xenoceratops foremostensis Albertaceratops nesmoi Medusaceratops lokii Wendiceratops pinhornensis Sinoceratops zhuchengensis Coronosaurus brinkmani Centrosaurus apertus Spinops sternbergorum Styracosaurus albertensis Styracosaurus ovatus Stellasaurus ancellae Einiosaurus procurvicornis Achelousaurus horneri Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum Sampson and colleagues stated in 2013 that the discovery of Nasutoceratops provided support for the "dinosaur provincialism hypothesis", which postulates that there was separation between the fauna of northern and southern Laramidia for more than a million years during the late Campanian, with at least two coeval dinosaur communities.

These researchers found that nasutoceratopsins overlapped briefly in time with the other two main clades of Centrosaurinae (Centrosaurini and Pachyrhinosaurini), and that centrosaurines were loosely latitudinally distributed during the Late Cretaceous.

The narial region of Nasutoceratops was deep mainly due to the premaxilla and maxilla having steeply rising, enlarged contact surfaces, but the function of this is unknown.

[4] Sampson stated in a 2013 press release that the large snout probably did not have anything to do with a heightened sense of smell, since olfactory sensors are located further back in the head, closer to the brain.

[30] The formation represents an alluvial to coastal plain setting that was wet, humid, and dominated by large, deep channels with stable banks and perennial wetland swamps, ponds, and lakes.

Rivers flowed across the plains and drained into the Western Interior Seaway; the Gulf Coast region of the United States has been proposed as a good modern analogue (such as the current day swamplands of Louisiana).

Theropods include the tyrannosaurid Teratophoneus, the oviraptorosaur Hagryphus, an unnamed ornithomimid, the troodontid Talos, indeterminate dromaeosaurids, and the bird Avisaurus.

[34] The swamps and wetlands were dominated by cypress trees up to 30 m (98 ft) tall, ferns, and aquatic plants including giant duckweed, water lettuce, and other floating angiosperms.

[30] In 2010, the paleontologist Michael A. Getty and colleagues examined the taphonomy (changes occurring during decay and fossilization) of the holotype specimen and the sedimentological circumstances under which it was preserved.